💡 WiseUp! Vol. 30 — Are you in a reading rut?

📍 Let's start with a reading recommendation

The two kinds of bad readers

This week, we're featuring a thought-provoking post from Steven Reese, creator of the the Read Your Color system. His take: not all reading is created equal. “It looks like reading. It is reading, in a technical sense. But it goes nowhere. Those of us in this ditch can read 100 books a year and still live small, incurious lives. We've traded growth for comfort, wonder for algorithm, curiosity for clout." Take the quiz at the end of this email to discover your reading color, then get started with Your Next Favorite Book or explore the many other recommendations on Steven's Substack to keep reading well. 🌈

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From the support inbox

Have questions about using Readwise or Reader in your workflow? We'd love to be your guide! Reply to this email with your question and you might be featured in an upcoming issue. Even if your question isn’t featured, we’ll respond to every message.

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❓ A Readwise question from Bernardo P:

How can I save one-off iOS highlights in Readwise with the article info?

In your iOS browser, click the share button and select Readwise to instantly save highlights with the article title and source, turning each one into a neatly organized entry that's ready to revisit.

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❓ A Reader question from Rick T:

Can I add Reddit posts into Reader as an RSS feed?

Get Reddit posts delivered to Reader so new posts appear alongside your other feeds, ready for highlighting and saving. Append .rss to any Reddit URL (subreddit or search results) and paste that link into Add Feed.

📖 New help doc of the week

Chat with Readwise highlights in ChatGPT

With ChatGPT’s new custom connections, it’s now possible to search your highlights using the Readwise MCP inside ChatGPT. Learn how to set it up in Cayla’s new documentation.

[Note: Custom connections are currently only available for users on ChatGPT’s Pro, Team, or Enterprise plans. We’re hoping they eventually add this for free and/or Plus users as well!]

Read the guide

🎬 New video of the week

Import highlights from paper books

In this week’s video, Erin will show you how to convert highlights from your paper books and PDFs to HTML so they’re easy to search and impossible to lose.

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📰 Aug 16 - Aug 22 updates

What's new in Reader and Readwise

📕 NEW! OneNote Integration — You can now connect your OneNote account and automatically export your highlights, thanks to Rasul. Head to the export page if you'd like to check it out.

💬 NEW! ChatGPT MCP Connection — You can now add Readwise as a custom connection in ChatGPT, thanks to Tristan and Ibai. (Note that custom connections are currently available only for ChatGPT users with Pro, Team, or Enterprise plans.)

📚 Improved EPUB Parsing — Mitch fixed a glitch that prevented some books from parsing. This was a rare edge case that could happen if a book was saved by multiple users, as happens with books shared through our Wisereads newsletter. So if you've saved one and it wasn't working, check it out again!

🟡 Fixed PDF Annotations — Mati fixed a PDF-specific bug where the annotation menu wouldn't appear after highlighting text on iPads. You can now add notes and access Ghostreader after highlighting, without needing to go to the sidebar.

🎥 Fixed Video Repositioning — Arek fixed a bug where trying to slide the video progress bar on Android devices would accidentally trigger the side panels instead of changing the video position. Quickly navigating through a video by dragging the slider along the timeline should no longer cause other UI elements to react.

🔁 Fixed Kindle Import — Ibai fixed a bug where Kindle highlights were importing as notes with empty highlight fields. Kindle highlights now import correctly as highlights, which should improve search results and Chat with Highlights functionality.

🛜 Parsing Updates —  Krzys improved how Reader handles documents from youtube.com, archive.is, readwise.io, science.org, and zed.dev.

👍 Three featured finds

From quality assurance specialist Eleanor

Something to read 📖
Eleanor keeps coming back to Empress of the East by Leslie Peirce for its well-rounded perspective into Ottoman history. You can check out her full review here.

Something to focus ✒️
Eleanor has really been enjoying the Tombow Mono pens, some of the best fine-nib pens for writing at an angle.

Something to unwind 🎡
Harper's Ferry is one of Eleanor's favorite towns, and Dowdle makes great high quality jigsaw puzzles. It's so good she's done this one a few times now.

💬 From the Readwise group chat

A rainbow of readers

Move over aura readings, we're all obsessing over Read Your Color here at Readwise. The idea behind this quiz is that while many people rely on genre categories to choose what to read, true reading enjoyment often transcends genre boundaries. Take the quiz and let us know if you feel seen, just like we did!